I couldn't start out easy with NejiHina, no . . . had to involve heavy clan politics and plans right from the beginning, at least in discussion, even in a short story like this one.

There are only a few, but translations are in the end notes.

Neji startled in his bed as he heard a quiet tapping at his front door. It wasn't far away, his home was small, but the sound was still only barely audible.

He rolled forwards, sitting up, and looked through the house to the door and beyond it with Byakugan. His eyes widened.

He pushed to his feet and padded through the small house, frowning. It was very late, and there was little reason for this particular person to be at his door even during the day. Even so, even now in his own home - though still on Hyuuga clan lands, of course - Neji could hardly have refused her even if he wished to.

Neji opened the door and met a pair of eyes that were often soft despite the familiar Hyuuga blankness. They glowed like sun-struck mist in the dim light spilling down from the moon and stars.

"Hinata. . ." Neji greeted, then hesitated, not entirely certain about allowing the honorific to go unsaid, even in this situation, but feeling awkward to voice it here, in the cool, remote velvet wrapping of the night.

"Neji-nii-sama." Hinata said in her soft voice, bowing her head slightly, her hair falling forwards around her chin.

"What do you seek from me?" Neji asked, tilting his head.

Hinata looked up at him again, seemingly only a hair away from trembling like a frightened rabbit. Neji knew she was stronger than that, but Hinata shrank into herself to make room for those around her, shy and uncertain. It pricked at his temper to see her do so, when she could be - was - so much more.

"Neji-nii-sama," Hinata began, and Neji raised an eyebrow, waiting patiently, "it isn't . . . proper," she said, ducking her chin slightly, and both of Neji's brows rose in his surprise, "but. . ."

She didn't finish.

"What do you seek from me?" Neji asked, absent the wariness that would have leavened his tone with anyone else, particularly Honke, speaking thusly to him - he was curious, but it was Hinata. He couldn't fear her. Not because of his own strength, although he could certainly best her still, but simply because of herself.

"Nothing- Nothing you would not give me freely." Hinata said tentatively, and Neji waited. Hinata crept a tiny bit closer, tipping her head back to meet his eyes. "Kiss me?" she asked, her voice so low and strangely husky that Neji took a moment to realise what she had said.

He opened his mouth, then closed it silently, staring at Hinata.

Hinata bowed her head respectfully, but Neji was still stuck trying to process her request. His eyes fell to her pale mouth, trembling ever so slightly as she watched him through her lashes and her bangs.

Neji swallowed, wanting to ask why but trusting Hinata and . . . he wanted to.

Neji reached out one hand, callused fingertips brushing Hinata's soft cheek, tracing the full curve of her face. Hinata swayed just a little towards him, and Neji's lips quirked with pleasure at the softness she displayed for him.

He cupped her cheek and bent his head to hers, and Hinata's breath caught as she leaned up, eyes wide and bright. Neji kissed her lightly, feeling out the contact, his heart beat a little faster with anticipation and adrenaline. Her lips were soft and plush beneath his own, and she pushed into the touch with a kind of hesitant eagerness.

Neji tilted his head, delicately deepening the contact, and Hinata made a breathy sound under the caress. Neji hummed, almost silent, the sound thrumming in his throat, and let their lips part.

Hinata was faintly flushed, smiling a little and seemingly looking to him for a cue.

Neji brought one hand to her upper arm, curling just above her elbow and drawing her in closer to himself as he stepped back, bringing her through the doorway and properly into his home. The door slid closed behind her with a velvety susurrus, shutting out the remote coolness of the night and leaving them wrapped in an even dimmer light, alone together.

"Neji-nii-sama. . ." Hinata breathed, her voice almost fluttery.

"Is-" Neji paused - his own voice was throaty and a little rough. He cleared his throat. "Is that what you wanted?" he asked in a low tone.

Hinata swallowed, her toes curling in her sandals.

"I. . ." Hinata looked up at him from beneath her lashes again.

Neji reached for her, then stopped himself. Hinata closed the small distance that had grown between them herself, inching in tentatively but still meeting his eyes with a hopeful sort of air. "Even if I could, Neji-nii-sama, I would not take anything from you that you . . . did not want to offer me." she said in her soft voice.

Neji nodded once, shallowly, understanding.

"Is. . ." Hinata's blush deepened. "Is this . . . something . . . you would want?" she asked.

Neji's heart roared in his chest, though he didn't show it outwardly. If she activated Byakugan she might see the signs of his sudden turmoil - she might even be close enough to feel it, a little, without looking - but Hinata only waited, nervous and patient. Receptive, but not demanding.

Neji pulled her to him as gently as he could manage, and one of her hands came up to his shoulder, steadying herself. Neji pushed one of the locks framing her face back and bent his head to kiss her again, feathery and soft, repeating the caress a little more firmly, then again, extending the single touch into more tender kisses.

Hinata moaned softly, clinging to his shoulder and pulling her body up against his chest, and Neji groaned. Hinata smiled against his mouth, pressing a little harder herself, gaining a touch of confidence. Neji welcomed it, though it half surprised him, stepping in towards her and pushing her backwards in the process as there was no more space left to close between their bodies. He slid one hand down her side, resting it on her back just above her hip to steady, and she leaned into him, fingers curling tighter into the shoulder of his shirt.

Hinata's lips parted with a tiny gasp as Neji's tongue flicked and tested them, and he cupped his left hand around her slim neck as he deepened the kiss with a careful slide. She welcomed the increased contact eagerly, clinging to his shoulder and tugging at him lightly by the grip. Neji shifted his weight, pushing her back again, ducking his head to mesh their lips more neatly.

His blood raced with excitement, and Neji was hardly holding back now as he covered her mouth with his own and felt the giving sweetness of her kiss, backed by a tightly-controlled will and desire of her own. Neji delved into her mouth, and Hinata matched him, her free hand sliding up to his other shoulder as she stretched up to return the pressure of the kiss, growing wilder between them.

Neji bit at Hinata's mouth, only half gently, as his right hand moved lower, sliding over the graceful swell of her hip and gripping tight to pull her against him. She gasped again, a tiny yelp catching in her throat with her breath this time, and Neji's head was fogged with heat and desire, but he wasn't . . . this.

Neji broke away from the kiss roughly, his lips tingling and his chest feeling tight. Hinata was panting and deeply flushed. She shifted to lean against the wall for support, her fingers still curled desperately into Neji's shirt. Her breath fanned against the hollow of his throat and sent shivers down his body, racing in fluttery waves under his skin. He yanked his hands away from the firm curve of her hip, the soft arch of her throat and her pulse thrumming under his palm.

"Hinata- Hinata-sama." Neji said, his own voice sounding a little strange to his ears with the breathlessness and raw ache it carried. "I. . . I apologise for my. . ."

"Why?" Hinata said softly, though she was bright red and she still couldn't catch her breath. "And you- Hinata, please, Neji-nii-sama. . . You called me just Hinata, please."

Neji swallowed, lifting his jaw and straightening his spine just a little, inclining his head in the tiniest bow. "I- I'm afraid I rather got . . . ahead of myself. I did not intend to-" Neji might actually be blushing himself now. He didn't think he ever had, but his cheeks felt a little warmer than they should.

"Did you not," Hinata dipped her head but did not look away, her hands withdrawing from their places resting his chest as she shifted awkwardly, and Neji had to clench his own hands as he resisted the urge to reach for her again, to bring her back to him, "did you not wish to kiss me?"

Neji had never realised how much he wished to kiss his cousin, and he feared now he might never forget the depth of the desire and passion there. "I did." he said honestly, his voice rough. "I should not have been so-" he broke off. His body was throbbing with want and his head was muddled and Hinata's soft, flushed face and tentative yet somehow quite certain voice were not helping him bring himself back under control.

The muscles at the pit of his belly tightened a little more, with a flare of the heat pooling there, and Neji grit his teeth and forced himself to take a few deep breaths, controlling his impulses.

"Will you do it again?" Hinata asked, and Neji's eyes, fallen half closed as he breathed slowly, snapped open wide again. He stared at her, and her lashes fluttered as she looked away. "If- If you want. . . Would you do it again, please, Neji-nii-sama? I. . . Please."

Neji stroked her cheek, hardly realising he had moved to do so until he felt the softness of her skin under his fingers. Hinata's head tilted into the touch, and she raised a hand to curl around his wrist. Her hand was tiny compared to his own, but her calluses were every bit as thick and solid as his own; her hands were small and delicately-built, but strong.

"You are not too much for me." Hinata said, her eyes suddenly meeting Neji's squarely once more. "I want. . . If you would offer it, I want . . . that from you." she said, lowering her eyes again, shy but not retreating.

Neji was still for a moment. "How long have you wanted?" he asked, feeling as though the question was being pulled from him, tracing her collarbone with a fingertip.

"You were the first person my heart ever called for, Neji-nii-sama." Hinata said softly, shrugging one thin shoulder. "You have always been held inside," she covered her heart with one hand, "but it . . . changed," she flushed a little deeper again, "as we grew older."

Neji remembered nearly killing her when she was thirteen and all his muscles tightened.

"I am a far cry from what you once desired." Neji said softly, thinking of Naruto, who he respected more than he ever would have thought possible, but could hardly have differed from more if they had both set out to create a rift between themselves.

"An inspiration and a love are not always the same, though they may be." Hinata said smoothly, twining her hands around Neji's wrist. "If you do not want me, I will go and I will never- I would not press you."

"So you said." Neji said without thinking. "And . . . if I were to want you? What would that mean?" he asked, moving closer with a touch of hesitancy himself, now. "As you said, cousin, this is hardly proper."

Not because of their shared blood - not in the Hyuuga compound, although his father and hers were certainly closer than most - but because she was the disgraced and returned heir to the Honke, and for all Neji's strength and genius, he was still the Bunke who resented his place. Some of the elders still murmured that it was Neji who should have been born the heir, that perhaps he should never have been Caged - Neji with his strength and speed, his genius, his natural grasp of Byakugan and even the kaiten and advanced techniques, even without being taught.

"For myself," Hinata said with a soft curve to her lips, and reached up to cup his face with affectionately gentle strokes, "it means that you may have me - that we may. . ." She flushed rosily. "For my father," she paused, frowning; Neji knew Hinata loved her father but she was not blind to his faults, nor to the reasons why Neji would never trust him again, "he may try and take away your choice." she said, meeting his eyes with regret.

Neji raised an eyebrow at that. "My choice?" he asked, trailing his fingers over Hinata's throat. She didn't so much as tense under the touch. "What choice do you imagine I have, much less at his hands?"

Hinata bowed her head. "My father . . . I believe he would think it well if he could bring the strength you bear back into the Honke." she said delicately, and Neji felt a flash of rage, though he had controlled that part of him well - bled it out, much of it, over the years since the Chuunin exams.

"I would not use you that way," Hinata said sadly, "but . . . others would, and it would be seen. . . And you would be seen to be bowing to that. If you. . ."

"I do want you, Hinata." Neji admitted, his throat tight. The cold spill of her words had calmed his ardour but he remembered the echoes of that passion well, and he would not deny them. "But I do not know if I can walk into that house - walk before the elders - in that way."

Neither of them bothered to pretend there would be anything less - no matter how new or uncertain things were between them, if they allowed this to happen, it would be a match made for their clan, not merely a dalliance or courtship that could lead to more. They had to be sure.

Neji would burn the possibility of siring children from his own body before he would allow the elders to breed more Bunke caged birds from his strength, whatever they wanted - but he was not sure that he could allow his children to be born to the Honke either. At least, one of them. He thought of his father, stomach tight.

"Our clan must change, Neji-nii-sama." Hinata said softly. "Our village is changing, but no matter what comes, we must change or we will die. Perhaps we should have generations ago." Her face creased. "I will not allow us to follow the path we have for so long. The path that took your father," she looked up apologetically, "that nearly took you from us in another way. Clan must stand together - and we must be strong. We can only be that together."

"You want me to change the clan with you?" Neji asked, surprised.

"I will change things no matter what I must do." Hinata said with a thread of steel in her voice. "Must I change things alone I will see our clan grow strong and healthy again. I would, were it your will to be there, have you stand at my side, when I take my father's place," she said with a softness creeping back around her mouth, "and I ask you for this for our clan as well as for my own heart," she swallowed, "but . . . also, I only truly love you, and would wish for you to be by my side." She rested a hand just beneath her breastbone. "If it is your wish."

Neji let his hands come to rest on Hinata's flared hips, moving a little closer to her.

His mind was quiet, but the rush of possibilities and the gaping chasms of all the ways things could go wrong if they did take this step together twisted just beneath the surface.

"I do not know if I can." Neji said painfully. In some ways, especially now, Hinata was . . . stronger than he was.

"If you want it, I know you can, Neji-nii-sama." Hinata said with conviction. "It is no small thing I ask of you, though. And I cannot take it back, you- you must be sure." She caressed his face again. "I would not hold it against you if it is not within you to be with me." She lifted her head. "I would offer you only me," she gestured at her own body, "if it were to be what you desire, but-"

"No." Neji snapped firmly. There was no shame in sharing loving and nothing more with another, but Hinata was. . . No. It would be all, or nothing, for them. It was the only way it could be.

Neji did not think he could love her and then let her go, either.

Hinata had always been something of the centre of Neji's heart, whether it be devotion or duty or detestation he focused on her. That had been so for too long to change it now.

"It would not only be for you that I made such an offer." Hinata said shyly, flushing brightly. "I would not only because. . ." She gave a helpless look. They both knew why. Not with their clan. The only clan where secrets were more at risk were the Inuzuka - and they were so much less enamoured of their secrets, allowing openness and squabbles to rule the day, as the elegant, controlled Hyuuga never would.

Neji clasped Hinata's arms, his hands closing a little more tightly than he intended but not enough to cause pain. "I will not have children who are Caged." he said, his voice shaking. "I cannot. I will not sire children to become like our parents."

Hinata's eyes were soft. "We have time to change things." she said quietly. "Our children would be free, Neji." she lifted her chin. "I will not have my children trapped so, nor have them cage others to torture them. The seal must change. If it must be given to protect our clan and our eyes from those who would steal our doujutsu, then we will find another way - it must not go on as it has been."

Neji sagged a little with relief. "If our clan can truly change." he said, though he thought if anyone could change the Hyuuga, it would be Hinata, with her boundless kindness and steel will, twined incongruously together in an inseparable, implacable mesh.

"We must." Hinata said firmly. "And Neji-nii-sama," she paused, stroking one of his hands, fingertips gentle as they passed over his knuckles, "I would not ask you to watch your children part the way that your father and mine were forced to do . . . nor to die for each other in such a way. Whether they are mine or not."

Neji's heart wrenched, and he nodded shallowly. "As things stand now, they would. . . But there is time to change things before. . ."

"Yes." Hinata said, a shiver running through her. She smiled, a bit of sorrow tingeing the gentle curve. "My father is still our Head, but . . . it weighs on him."

Neji's mouth twisted with disgust. He couldn't feel sympathy for Hiashi for that weight, no matter how strongly his position wore on him now. That bridge was burned between them long ago.

"As I grow stronger, the elders push him to choose between his daughters and eventually to allow his successor to begin taking on his duties. Father will hold to tradition, and eventually he will pass the position to me." Hinata said softly, confidence running through her voice. Hanabi had proved weaker than they had thought she would - she could not be the Head, though she was sure of herself. Perhaps too much. Neither hardship nor struggle had touched her as it had her sister. "I will not bring my children into this clan until it is changed to be a place that will welcome them."

Neji nodded, believing in her as he did - as he could - in few people in this world. He slid his hands down Hinata's arms to clasp their hands together, bringing them up between their bodies. "I would have no more children grow as I did," Neji said softly, "I would change the clan with you, at your side, Hinata." he offered, though he couldn't smile as he said it.

Hinata smiled for him, sweet and bright. "We will do it together, Neji-nii-sama." Her smile quirked, going a little playful. "Who could stand against us if we stand together?"

Neji squeezed her hands tighter. "I belonged always at your side. This is . . . how we should always have been." He inclined his head. "You will change our clan, and I will be your shadow, my lady."

Hinata's eyes widened, then her expression relaxed again. She squeezed his hands in return and leaned up, kissing him lightly. Neji let one arm fall around her waist and pull her snug to him, though there was a gentler warmth to the embrace this time, rather than the heady and headlong passion of the first kisses.

They breathed together as their lips parted, and Neji nuzzled Hinata's soft cheek, closing his eyes. Hinata's arms were looped lightly around his neck, and her back arched under the close embrace of his own.

Neji took a deep breath, closing his eyes and resting his brow against Hinata's head for a moment, then lifting his head and moving back. Hinata released him, slowly, her hands sliding over his shoulders and down his arms rather than simply dropping away, leaving faint tingles in their wake.

"Will you stay tonight?" Neji asked, arching a brow and smirking slightly.

Hinata smiled and did not blush as she inclined her head, accepting his invitation. "Yes, Neji. I would like to stay with you." she said quietly.

Hinata followed Neji through his quiet house to his bed, padding on bare feet. Hinata slid off her outer clothing, and Neji produced one of his kimono for her as she then turned her back, peeling away the mesh armour she had worn beneath her shirt.

Neji sank to one knee on the floor beside his futon and drew back the kakebuton for her before taking his own place there.

Now clad in the long, oversized garment - cut to be long and flow loosely around Neji's rather larger form - Hinata looked even more slender and fragile, but she was warm and solid as she slid into Neji's bed. He reached out to her and followed suit, lying down comfortably, and Hinata moved closer to him, clasping one hand around his own.

Hinata tilted her head towards him and they kissed again, soft and sweet - a promise - but shared nothing else for tonight.

It would not take long before their joining was spread as news among their clan. Longer than it might have in other circumstances - for others of their clan - for Neji had chosen a house at the outskirts of the clan lands, and was often left to himself, as he had made it clear he so preferred. Few of their clan would try - or bother - using Byakugan to spy on Neji, even from the Honke.

None of the clan were quite sure what to make of Neji, and they were coolly wary in the face of that uncertainty - and for the most part avoided possibly provoking his temper.

Hinata kissed Neji's cheek, curling up to his shoulder. She would be missed from the Main House in the morning, where she kept now to the rooms that had been hers in childhood, but it was also not unusual for Hinata to disappear in the wee hours or the gathering light of dawn to harvest plants or to train, or when called for missions. They would not think it strange, nor look too hard for her - and certainly not seek to find her here.

They would still have their head in choosing how to let the clan learn of their decision.

He twisted towards Hinata, wrapping an arm around her thin waist. "Hinata-sama." he said softly, and she hummed acknowledgement, tipping her head up towards him, two pairs of pale eyes meeting in the near-dark. "Aishiteru, my lady." he said softly, a silken whisper offered into the closeness of the night. One that had been true for many years.

Hinata made a tiny sound, then wound her fingers into his hair and kissed him gently but quite firmly, their breaths mingling as she pulled away. "Aishiteru te, Neji-nii-sama." she returned, just as quietly. "I am most glad to have you at my side. Now and always."

Neji smiled slightly, smoothing his thumb over Hinata's hand in a gentle caress.

Translations:
Honke - Main House
Bunke - Branch House
Aishiteru - I love you
Aishiteru te - And I love you/I love you too